Renewed calls to cut VAT on chicken as poor go without
Nonprofit organisation the FairPlay Movement, which is funded by the SA chicken industry, has again called for chicken bone-in pieces and chicken feet to be sold without VAT — a call it first made five years ago.
This time FairPlay argues that a VAT exemption is essential as food is becoming unaffordable.
At the same time, it is calling for a national summit to address the issue of rising prices.
FairPlay founder Francois Baird said: “We need a food security emergency summit to bring together everyone involved in the value chain.”
Food inflation was 14% in March, according to Stats SA.
Baird said rising prices and household food insecurity were a threat to social stability, echoing sentiments by Pick n Pay chair Gareth Ackerman, who pointed out that blackouts add to the risk of produce shortages.
Ackerman, speaking at Pick n Pay’s annual financial results presentation last week, said: “I feel compelled to caution that the entire food industry is under existential threat.
“The probability of social unrest relating to food shortages and possible store closures if blackouts get too high is now heightened.”
Speaking at the FairPlay media conference, SA Poultry Association chief executive Izaak Breitenbach called for a VAT exemption on some chicken items and for food manufacturers and chicken producers to be exempt from stage 10 loadshedding should it occur in winter.
He said food producers were expecting worsening power cuts in winter, which would affect production and threaten food security.
In December, many chickens could not be slaughtered due to load-shedding and then grew too big for the abattoir equipment. That led to culling and chicken shortages in the fast food industry.
Eskom has said it was difficult to reduce load-shedding for food producers or farmers because they fall into large areas that cannot be excluded either because the area is too big or because the technical and staffing aspects of managing so many different loadshedding areas was unfeasible.